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Boosting your LinkedIn profile

Published: 25 Jun 2019
By Charlotte Rogers

LinkedIn is one of the best social media platforms to help aid your job search, so if you don’t already have an account, it can help you greatly to make one. It doesn’t take a lot to get an account up and running and you can create a professional profile in less than an hour. LinkedIn is a place to network, share industry news and a place that has plenty of job potential. So, whether you need to make a profile, or you already have one, read our tips on how to boost your LinkedIn profile and make the most of the platform.

Update everything!

Don’t leave anything on your profile blank. Make sure you have everything up to date and in full working order. This means having a good quality photo on your page. This can be a work photo or a typical headshot. Just make sure you are using a suitable image for the platform, you don’t want a holiday picture – that’s more for Facebook, not LinkedIn. The photo you chose will be seen by potential employers, so use something you would be happy for them to see. Your contact information must be up to date. LinkedIn has the option for you to upload your CV, so if employers want to contact you, your contact information will have to be up to date. If not, you could miss out on great opportunities.

There is a section on your LinkedIn profile where you can update an ‘about you’ section and list all your experience, past and current. The ‘about you’ section is often used as a little informal personal statement. Use it well, don’t share too much personal information and still aim to keep it professional. Additionally, the experience section should be used to list not only your job titles and dates, but the responsibilities you had in that job role. You can even include a little about what you learnt from the experience, it gives recruiters a little more information about you and your experience, giving them a reason to contact you if necessary. The more information you give, the better. Never underestimate the networking abilities LinkedIn can have. It allows people to find you as well as you looking for them and can be an excellent resource if used well.

If you are actively looking for a new role, you can change the settings on your profile and let recruiters and employers know when you are job seeking and when you are not. This means when you are no longer looking for a role, you don’t have to have recruiters constantly messaging you – which can sometimes be a hassle. It’s a great feature to LinkedIn that should be taken advantage of, so try and use this!

Filter through your skills and endorsements

Another addition to LinkedIn is the skills and endorsements section that will be present closer to the bottom of your profile. It is important to take the time to filter through these every now and again, especially as your skills set changes. This is another section that employers may take the time to go and examine, so you want it to be an honest reflection of your abilities. Skills can change as technology changes, a software that you were once fluent in, may have changed and you may not know how to use the updated version, so keep this in mind. Endorsements allow people you have worked with in the past or current colleagues to approve your skills and gives your profile a bit more depth. It can be very important to have these on your profile, some jobs posted on LinkedIn will have specific skill requirements, so they can filter through applicants.

Embed your other social media

When you begin to set up your LinkedIn profile, it can be a good idea to link your other forms of social media to this page. However, before you do so, make sure that anything you add is solely professional and there is nothing inappropriate on your profiles. Social media has become such a big part of company culture and the way they market their products, that it almost seems like a missed opportunity to not attach your other social platforms. You should know which social pages to share and the ones that a re private. For example, Facebook is something you use to share with friends and family, so it would be best to keep that to yourself. However, Twitter may be a good platform to share. Especially because a lot of employers are using the platform now. Make sure you are acting professionally through the site and sharing industry news. It’s a good way to show employers that you are current with news and other updates in the engineering communities.

Recommendations

Another positive part of your LinkedIn profile is the recommendation section. People you have worked with in the past or present can take the time to leave you a little review. They can write something about you as a person or a professional, which can be seen by people that visit your profile. This is a nice little addition, especially when you are job-seeking. Not only can people see your key skills and work experience, they can see first hand opinions from colleagues or people from education. This can help you greatly and should be utilised. Try and ask people to fill this in for you, it won’t take long, and you can always do the same for them! Help each other out and people may be more likely to contribute to your profile.

When using any social media, you must be careful with what you post and who you follow, especially because profiles are so easy to find these days. Once you have put something online, it’s almost impossible to get rid of it, so be careful when using social media to land your next job. If you take the time to follow these tips and make sure your LinkedIn profile is complete and done with care, then you may start to see some positive effects. Not only will it look good to potential employers, but also to other professionals. LinkedIn is a great online place to network, so it must look professional. Try and steer away from posting ‘typical Facebook’ posts. This is not the place. Try and have a bit of practice and create the LinkedIn profile that suits you.